Govt Plans Body For Compiling Data On Unorganised Sector

The government plans to set up a national statistical authority which will have the legal powers to force both public and private sector organisations to supply data relating to production, employment and several other factors. This is one of the steps being contemplated to collect information about the informal sector of economy and evaluate its contribution to overall growth.

The department of statistics will soon carry out an economic census containing data on the unorganised sector as available statistics could be grossly undervaluing the countrys total output.

The statistical system which is governed by an act framed in 1950 was outdated and there is a need to update the legal position to ensure that data collected is accurate, M D Asthana, secretary, department of statistics, said today.

 

The department, which will publish the fourth economic census by end-1997, will now focus mainly on data from the unorganised sector, which accounts for more than 60 per cent of Indias gross domestic product (GDP) and employs over 90 per cent of the total workforce.

The total output of the nation could be grossly undervalued due to lack of information regarding the informal sector, Asthana said.

He added that contribution from the informal sector should be quantified in a proper manner.

The informal sector thus requires an appropriate stategy, whereby its achievements get properly reflected in the national economy for which methodologies needs to be developed for data collection, he said.

The Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) in the department of statistics is organising a two-day meeting of an expert group on informal sector statistics for this purpose in the capital from May 20, he said.

The expert group will emphasise on the operational aspects rather than theoratical details of methodologies for survey design and data collection in the unorganised sector, director general, CSO, S S Srivastava said.

Though better quantification of this sectors contribution may not change the growth rate projections to a large extent, however, total volume generated in sub-sectors may undergo drastic change, Srivastava said. Asked what went wrong with CSOs estimations of GDP growth rates that was proved incorrect for 1995-96, Srivastava denied any manipulation of data and said there can not be any motivational mistake but accepted that arithmatic mistakes can be possible. He said the projections were made at different points of time during the financial year. Hence, the final figure may change.